The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture 2 Volume Hardback Set
The Cambridge History of Arthurian Literature and Culture 2 Volume Hardback Set
February 2026
Not yet published - available from February 2026
Multiple copy pack
9781009031202
Price unavailable
Multiple copy pack
2 Hardback books
Arthur and his knights, Lancelot and Guinevere, Merlin the wise man, Mordred the traitor: these and so many other Arthurian tales make a living link between the distant British past and the contemporary world. In this rich history spanning two volumes, readers can explore how the story of Arthur has developed over sixteen centuries into a global cultural phenomenon. Expert contributors trace the Arthur myth from its earliest appearances in the sixth century through its development in the European Middle Ages into bold new forms of literature and historiography, and then through its challenges and transformations in early modernity, Romanticism, Modernism, and up to the present day. All things Arthurian are explored, both in traditional categories – literature, historiography, art history, politics, and manuscript studies – but also in modern media such as cinema, television, cartoons, tourist packages, and many others.
- The comprehensive history of Arthurianism from its beginnings to the contemporary world and across all media, covering literature, historiography, and manuscript studies alongside modern forms such as cinema, television, cartoons, and even tourist packages
- Crosses a wide range of European languages and cultural centres, showing in detail how multiple factors from many separate locales worked over centuries to produce the varied European traditions of Arthurian themes involving Merlin, Tristan, and the Holy Grail
- Approaches the works of Geoffrey of Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, Thomas Malory, and Alfred Tennyson as recurring influences whose reception over time offers a vital measure of continuity and change in Arthurianism
Product details
February 2026Multiple copy pack
9781009031202
1364 pages
229 × 152 mm
Not yet published - available from February 2026
Table of Contents
- Part I. The Early Arthur:
- 1. Arthur in medieval Wales
- 2. Arthur in early histories
- 3. Early Merlin and early Myrddin
- 4. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Arthur
- Part II. Arthurian Literary Developments:
- 5. Chrétien de Troyes: the start of Arthurian romance
- 6. Arthur in Latin, Anglo-Norman and English chronicles prior to 1500
- 7. French Arthurian verse romance after Chrétien de Troyes
- 8. The old French Vulgate and post-Vulgate cycles
- 9. Non-cyclical French Arthurian prose romances
- 10. Arthurian alliterative poetry in English, 1250–1550
- 11. Middle English Arthurian verse romances
- 12. Thomas Malory: Le Morte Darthur
- 13. Arthur in the prose Brut chronicle tradition
- 14. Arthur in the northern lands
- 15. Arthur in the medieval low countries
- 16. Arthur in medieval Germany
- 17. Arthurian literature in medieval central and eastern Europe
- 18. Arthur in Irish, Scots, Cornish and Breton
- 19. The Iberian Arthur in the Middle Ages
- 20. Arthur in medieval Italy
- Part III. Cross-cultural Medieval Arthur:
- 21. Cross-cultural Arthurian dissemination: Marie de France's Lanval
- 22. Cross-cultural Tristan
- 23. The Holy Grail: the material dissemination of Grail romance from manuscript to print in northern Europe
- 24. Arthurianism in medieval society and politics
- Part IV. Imaging the Medieval Arthur:
- 25. Arthurian manuscript illumination: the old French Vulgate tradition
- 26. The Arthurian legend in medieval monumental art
- 27. Arthur and the early printed book in Europe
- Part I. Post-Medieval Arthurs in Literature and Culture:
- 1. Welsh-language Arthurian writing from the post-medieval period
- 2. Arthur in England and Scotland, 1500–1700
- 3. Arthur in France, Spain and Italy, 1550–1800
- 4. Arthur in Germanic languages, literatures and cultures, 1550–1800
- 5. Arthur in English-language literature in England and Scotland, 1700–1830
- 6. Arthur in continental Europe, 1800–1920
- 7. Tennyson's Idylls of the King
- 8. Arthur in the English language in Britain and Ireland, 1830–1920
- 9. Arthur in continental European literature and culture, 1920 to the present
- 10. Arthur in English and Irish literature, 1920 to the present
- 11. Arthur in North American literature and culture to c. 1900
- 12. Arthur in North American literature and culture, from 1900 to the present
- 13. Arthurian legends in Japanese pop culture
- 14. Arthur in Africa
- 15. Arthur in Latin America
- 16. Arthurianism in Australia
- Part II. Arthur off the Page:17. Arthurian art, illustration and material culture, 1500–1800
- 18. The revival of Arthurian legend in art, 1800–1920
- 19. Arthurian illustration after 1920 in England and America
- 20. Arthur in Anglophone cinema and television
- 21. Arthur in non-Anglophone cinema and television
- 22. Arthur in graphic novels and gaming
- Part III. Arthurian Approaches:
- 23. The evolution of modern Arthurian scholarship in old French and middle high German
- 24. Arthurian places: tradition, landscape, and heritage tourism
- 25. Arthurian childhoods and Anglophone Arthurian children's literature
- 26. Arthuriana and race
- 27. Arthur the Warrior from medieval to modern
- 28. Gender and Arthurian Romance
- 29. Arthurian emotions
- 30. Arthurian romance in the global Middle Ages.
